'\" te
.\" Copyright (c) 2000, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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.TH LIBPICL 3PICL "Mar 28, 2000"
.SH NAME
libpicl \- PICL interface library
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fBcc\fR [ \fIflag\fR \|.\|.\|. ] \fIfile\fR \|.\|.\|. \fB-lpicl\fR [ \fIlibrary\fR \|.\|.\|. ]
#include <picl.h>
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
The PICL interface is the platform-independent interface for clients to access
the platform information. The set of functions and data structures of this
interface are defined in the <\fBpicl.h\fR> header.
.sp
.LP
The information published through PICL is organized in a tree, where each node
is an instance of a well-defined PICL class. The functions in the PICL
interface allow the clients to access the properties of the nodes.
.sp
.LP
The name of the base PICL class is \fBpicl\fR, which defines a basic set of
properties that all nodes in the tree must possess. The following table shows
the property set of a \fBpicl\fR class node.
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
Property Name	Property Value
_
\fBname\fR	The name of the node
_
\fB_class\fR	The PICL class name of the node
_
\fB_parent\fR	Node handle of the parent node
_
\fB_child\fR	Node handle of the first child node
_
\fB_peer\fR	Node handle of the next peer node
.TE

.sp
.LP
Property names with a a leading underscore ('_') are reserved for use by the
PICL framework. The property names \fB_class\fR, \fB_parent\fR, \fB_child\fR,
and \fB_peer\fR are reserved names of the PICL framework, and are used to refer
to a node's parent, child, and peer nodes, respectively.  A client shall access
a reserved property by their names only as they do not have an associated
handle. The property \fBname\fR is not a reserved property, but a mandatory
property for all nodes.
.sp
.LP
Properties are classified into different types. Properties of type integer,
unsigned-integer, and float have integer, unsigned integer, and floating-point
values, respectively. A \fBtable\fR property type has the handle to a table as
its value. A table is a matrix of properties. A \fBreference\fR property type
has a handle to a node in the tree as its value. A \fBreference\fR property may
be used to establish an association between any two nodes in the tree. A
\fBtimestamp\fR property type has the value of time in seconds since Epoch. A
\fBbytearray\fR property type has an array of bytes as its value. A
\fBcharstring\fR property type has a nul ('\e0') terminated sequence of ASCII
characters. The size of a property specifies the size of its value in bytes. A
\fBvoid\fR property type denotes a property that exists but has no value.
.sp
.LP
The following table lists the different PICL property types enumerated in
\fBpicl_prop_type_t\fR.
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
Property Type	Property Value
_
\fBPICL_PTYPE_VOID\fR	None
_
\fBPICL_PTYPE_INT\fR	Is an integer
_
\fBPICL_PTYPE_UNSIGNED_INT\fR	Is an unsigned integer
_
\fBPICL_PTYPE_FLOAT\fR	Is a floating-point number
_
\fBPICL_PTYPE_REFERENCE\fR	Is a PICL node handle
.TE

.SS "Reference Property Naming Convention"
.sp
.LP
Reference properties may be used by plug-ins to publish properties in nodes of
different classes. To make these property names unique, their names must be
prefixed by _\fIpicl_class_name\fR_, where \fIpicl_class_name\fR is the class
name of the node referenced by the property. Valid PICL class names are
combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters 'a' through 'z', digits '0'
through '9', and '-' (minus) characters.  The string that follows
the '_\fIpicl_class_name\fR_' portion of a reference property name may be used to
indicate a specific property in the referenced class, when applicable.
.SS "Property Information"
.sp
.LP
The information about a node's property that can be accessed by PICL clients is
defined by the \fBpicl_propinfo_t\fR structure.
.sp
.in +2
.nf
typedef struct {
    picl_prop_type_t  type;           /* property type */
    unsigned int      accessmode;     /* read, write */
    size_t            size;           /* item size or
                                         string size */
    char              name[PICL_PROPNAMELEN_MAX];
} picl_propinfo_t;
.fi
.in -2

.sp
.LP
The \fBtype\fR member specifies the property value type and the
\fBaccessmode\fR specifies the allowable access to the property. The plug-in
module that adds the property to the PICL tree also sets the access mode of
that property. The volatile nature of a property created by the plug-in is not
visible to the PICL clients. The \fBsize\fR member specifies the number of
bytes occupied by the property's value. The maximum allowable size of property
value is \fBPICL_PROPSIZE_MAX\fR, which is set to 512KB.
.SS "Property Access Modes"
.sp
.LP
The plug-in module may publish a property granting a combination of the
following access modes to the clients:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
#define   PICL_READ   0x1   /* read permission */
#define   PICL_WRITE  0x2   /* write permission */
.fi
.in -2

.SS "Property Names"
.sp
.LP
The maximum length of the name of any property is specified by
\fBPICL_PROPNAMELEN_MAX\fR.
.SS "Class Names"
.sp
.LP
The maximum length of a PICL class name is specified by
\fBPICL_CLASSNAMELEN_MAX\fR.
.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(7)  for descriptions of the following attributes:
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
MT-Level	MT-Safe
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
.BR libpicl (3LIB),
.BR attributes (7)
